Bulls Clobber CMU In Last Home Game

Any victory, especially a victory for the UB football team, is sweet, but the taste of victory was a bit sweeter for the Bulls on Saturday, as 13 seniors closed out their respective careers at UB Stadium with a win.

Rebounding from a 33-7 thrashing by Kent State last weekend, the Bulls scored a dominating 36-6 victory over the visiting Central Michigan Chippewas (3-7, 2-5 Mid-American Conference) at UB Stadium on Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 6,490.

With the win, the Bulls improved their record to 2-8 overall and 2-6 in the MAC. The two MAC wins this season tie the most games that UB has won since its inception into the MAC six years ago.

"I'm really proud of how our guys were able to bounce back and really play a terrific football game against a very proud program," said UB head coach Jim Hofher. "We really had to play terrific football to compete and win and we did that today and I'm really grateful to the kids and how they have tried to respond in every way."

Senior offensive lineman Erik Zeppuhar echoed Hofher's sentiments.

"Last week was a black eye, but just because you lose a game doesn't mean you have to carry a loser's attitude the following week," said Zeppuhar. "Guys did a little soul-searching and had more fun playing football, had an awesome week of practice and it carried over into the game. I'm not surprised by the result."

After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulls exploded for an uncharacteristic 28 unanswered points in the second quarter, highlighted by a 34-yard run by UB junior quarterback P.J. Piskorik.

Following Piskorik's run, the Bulls scored the first touchdown of the game on a 9-yard Steven King touchdown scurry to make the score 7-0 with 14:06 left in the second quarter. King amassed 74 yards on a team-leading 16 carries in the game for the Bulls.

After stopping the ensuing CMU drive, sparked by Bill Meholif's sack for a 12-yard loss, the Bulls were quick to strike again, this time with Chris McDuffie scoring his first touchdown of the season and the first of two touchdowns on the afternoon with an 11-yard dash to give UB a 14-0 advantage with 9:32 remaining on the clock in the second quarter.

Following a Central Michigan snap infraction penalty, and a 15-yard punt by CMU's Anthony Mikulec into somewhat mild wind, UB began its third drive of the quarter on the CMU 20-yard line.

Capitalizing on UB's excellent field position, Piskorik trailed a 14-yard run with an acrobatic dive into the end zone on a four-yard scamper to score his first touchdown of the season with 6:01 left in the quarter to bring the score to 21-0.

"I think we were very opportunistic from an offensive standpoint, to get some touchdowns, especially on a 20-yard drive, you have to expect to get that done, and other times we haven't always gotten that done. Today we did," said Hofher. "I think we did an excellent job at the line of scrimmage, both ways, particularly on defense, we did an excellent job at the line of scrimmage, we were able to get a defensive score, we had a special teams score."

On the very next possession, the Bulls defense came up big to force a three-and-out situation. Junior linebacker Bryan Cummings blocked Mikulec's punt which was gathered by UB wide receiver Gabriel McClover who made a 24-yard run to score the fourth touchdown of the quarter for the Bulls, giving UB a 28-0 advantage going into halftime.

Cummings was one of many defensive stars for the Bulls, finishing the game with six tackles, a block, a quarterback hurry and 1.5 sacks.

The Chippewas posed a minimal threat to the Bulls in the second half. Justin Gardner scored CMU's first and only touchdown with 2:48 left in the third quarter on an 11-yard pass from Kent Smith to put the Chippewas on the board.

To kick off the fourth quarter, the UB defense struck again. Rich Sanders sacked CMU's Smith in the end zone for a safety to lengthen the UB lead with 11:32 left in the game. The UB safety was the first posted by the Bulls since a Sept. 7, 2002 victory at Rutgers.

"As a defense, we came out with a different attitude from previous weeks," said Sanders. "Basically, we knew what we were doing from the beginning of the week ... we just knew what we saw and stuck to it."

As time wound down in the game, senior Randal Secky closed out his career at UB Stadium on a memorable note. Secky got in on the scoring action when he fired a 34-yard shot to redshirt freshman Trevor Scott which ultimately led to a 2-yard touchdown run by McDuffie to give the Bulls a 36-6 advantage, a score that would stand, with 1:46 remaining on the clock.

Piskorik had a break-out game on offense for the Bulls, leading the team in rushing with 85 yards on 10 carries, and a touchdown. Piskorik also completed six passes on 17 attempts, with one interception, good for 122 yards through the air.

"We've seen him play hard an awful lot," said Hofher of Piskorik. "I think he made a lot of good decisions, he protected the ball pretty well and the quarterback is obviously going to have his hands on the ball on every play."

The UB defense was superb, holding the Central Michigan offense to 56 yards rushing. The defense was also highlighted by eight sacks on the afternoon, including two apiece by Rich Sanders and Phil Jacques.

The Bulls were also successful in holding CMU star running back Jerry Seymour, the 2003 MAC Freshman of the Year, to just 81 yards rushing, down from his season average of 109.6 yards per game. Sophomore Jeff Bublavi had seven tackles for the Bulls, while true freshman Jamal Chisam contributed six tackles, one for a loss. Chisam also recorded his first career interception.

Terrance Breaux, another UB true freshman had a solid outing on offense for the Bulls. Breaux had three catches, good for 49 yards, while Bryan Kisabeth finished the game with two receptions for 56 yards.

The Bulls will attempt to win their third game of the season when they conclude their 2004 campaign next weekend at Connecticut.

"We know we've got plenty of work to do and I really believe that our kids will continue to try to do things right so that we can continue climbing as best we can," said Hofher.

The non-league contest is set to kick off at noon.